HGS-Hybrid Grain Shave

It’s a weird title, I know, but it’s the only way I know to title what I tried this morning.

While trying various ways to stretch my skin, hold my new razors and learn the contours on my face, neck and chin I came discovered by accident a different way of shavings that’s not quite WTG or CTG. The “grain” on my face seemed to be different in different places so I tried a sort of diagonal approach that worked perfectly.

For the first shave, instead of going directly down (WTG) I went from my ear toward my mouth. The second shave went from my check under my eye toward my jaw just below my ear. This technique worked wonders on my chin, where I leave a trail like E.T. of small red markers. The blade had to be slanted so that it was still perpendicular to the direction I was shaving; otherwise I was worried about it making some nice divots.

Here’s what it looks like (the V is the bottom of the arrow)
http://i.b5z.net/i/u/2125182/i/razors/HGS-womble.jpg


The third pass, for me, was the usual up stroke of ATG. I guess you could vary the passes as I did for the down strokes, if that suited your grain pattern.

Maybe this is old stuff, but being somewhat new I enjoyed finding something that worked just for me. It may be helpful to others who are either new to SR shaving or want to try something new.

I do very similar things when I shave. Sometimes you need to make adjustments like this to get BBS smooth from a straight. 100% bbs today, btw. Stretching is different for everyone too.

It feels good to find new ways of improving, don't it?

I'm like that too. I have to make 4 passes to get it BBS. Are you using one or both hands?

My hair grows in at all sorts of angles, so I kind of gave up on trying to go WTG, XTG, ATG. I typically go down than up (roughly WTG, ATG), or down then towards my chin (roughly WTG, XTG). But I too go at angles, not in an attempt to get a closer shave, but rather to make strokes that are more comfortable. With a sharp enough razor, so long as I get at least XTG, I get an extremely close shave, and that's good enough for me.

jmueller8, I'm using 2 hands . . . most of the time. I really like using 1, but someday I know I'll end up injuring a hand/finger/etc. and would rather be ready to shave with the other hand at a moment's notice.

As to the notes about stretching, I'm still on the learning curve there. One thing that I started doing was to (sounds silly) blow a little air in my cheek. It seems to push out the indentions or concave curves. I just hope if I cut myself I don't sound like a whoopie cusion as the air escapes.

Your description and picture makes it sound like the "gillette slide" from mantic's advanced shaving techniques video on youtube. He does it with a mach 3 or DE (can't remember which for that move) but sounds like the same idea. It does work well, although you have to be extra careful not to do more forward than down stroke :chop:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by winterkid

jmueller8, I'm using 2 hands . . . most of the time. I really like using 1, but someday I know I'll end up injuring a hand/finger/etc. and would rather be ready to shave with the other hand at a moment's notice.

As to the notes about stretching, I'm still on the learning curve there. One thing that I started doing was to (sounds silly) blow a little air in my cheek. It seems to push out the indentions or concave curves. I just hope if I cut myself I don't sound like a whoopie cusion as the air escapes.

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Yep; I'm like a saxophone player shaving too. I'll give the right hand another chance then!
Thanks
Jeff

My beard grows at all sorts of weird angles, so I do what Holli does, in that I go mostly N/S then S/N with some E/W thrown in. It works for me, and that's the total point...do what works best for you. I do an angular motion on my neck because my hairs grow left-to-right, so its kinda similar to what Jockeys does in his vids.

I use a curving stroke, rotating the blade about the heal as I move down or across my face. This causes the blade to slice across the hair rather than just chop into it. Slicing is always better than chopping. There is a reason that slashing swords like the Japanese katana or the Western Saber have curved blades.